Theories explaining the relationship between neighbourhood stressors and depressive symptoms

This study synthesizes the current theoretical knowledge to explain the relationship between neighbourhood stressors and depressive symptoms. The two most relevant sociological theories, social disorganization theory and stress process theory, are identified. The current study carefully reviewed the two theories regarding their historical development and key conceptual aspects, beginning with the theoretical evolution of research on neighbourhood stressors and mental health. This study also provides detailed critiques on each theory and suggests how researchers can apply both theories to their empirical testing. For example, social disorganization theory points out the application of both objective and subjective aspects of neighbourhood stressors. Also, the stress process theory emphasizes the mediating or moderating role of psychosocial resources. In conclusion, this study suggests a conceptual model of neighbourhood stressors, psychosocial resources, and depressive symptoms.

Colorectal Cancer Stem Cells: An Overview of Evolving Methods and Concepts

Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents one of the most deadly cancers worldwide. Colorectal cancer stem cells (cCSCs) are the driving units of CRC initiation and development. After the concept of cCSC was first formulated in 2007, a huge bulk of research has contributed to expanding its definition, from a cell subpopulation defined by a fixed phenotype in a plastic entity modulated by complex interactions with the tumor microenvironment, in which cell position and niche-driven signals hold a prominent role. The wide development of cellular and molecular technologies recent years has been a main driver of advancements in cCSCs research. Here, we will give an overview of the parallel role of technological progress and of theoretical evolution in shaping the concept of cCSCs.

Diaspora in Modern Jewish Thought

This chapter explores the broad contours of concepts of diaspora in modern Jewish thought. Philosophers, intellectuals, religious thinkers, and non-Zionist nationalists who disagreed on the ideal political structure for Jewish collective life (including Moses Mendelssohn, Hermann Cohen, Franz Rosenzweig, Simon Dubnow, Hannah Arendt, Mordecai Kaplan, and Horace Kallen) shared a commitment to diaspora as a value, rather than just a fact, of modern Jewish life. Yet the emergence of the terminology of diaspora in tandem with the rise of nationalism and Zionism shaped the theoretical evolution of diaspora as the binary opposite to homeland and statist visions of Jewish identity. As a result, seminal Zionist theorists deeply critical of diaspora life, such as Theodor Herzl, Achad Ha’am, and David Ben-Gurion, also had a key role in framing the significance of diaspora. Modern theories of diaspora internalized and contested the privileged position of territory and sovereignty demanded by the rise of nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Psychological anthropology and medical anthropology: a brief history of ideas and concepts

This paper sets out to briefly explore the definitions of two interrelated subfields of cultural anthropology; psychological anthropology and medical anthropology. This exploration will argue that culture and the individual are intimately intertwined. The theoretical evolution within psychological anthropology will be presented, from the bio-moral classifications of the ‘primitive’ to modern ‘experience near’ ethnographies, and fluid understanding of personhood. Theoretical and methodological approaches to mental health will be discussed briefly. Finally, the conclusion will ask the question: what is the future for medical and psychological anthropology?

Foundations II

This chapter explores Spinoza’s doctrine of the social contract and his understanding of natural law and natural right. Contrasting his views with those of Hobbes, it interprets the social contract not as a logical, historical, or causal account of the state’s foundations, but as a fictive narrative, grounded entirely in the imagination, that citizens in a free republic must embrace in order to prevent mutual persecution and ensure collective security. It also argues how such a reading of the social contract can help resolve fundamental tensions between the Tractatus theologico-politicus and the later Tractatus politicus that until now have been most convincingly explained in terms of a fundamental theoretical evolution between Spinoza’s two political treatises.